


Things happen when Jon's not around

by hix



Series: Jon's second childhood [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Michael is A good guy, elias is manipulative, they just talk for a bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24202648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hix/pseuds/hix
Summary: Michael is nervous when Elias goes to ask him for a favor.Basically, this will be extra scenes from the main story that wouldn't get told otherwise, from other points of view. Will get updated if I think of good side moments that are fun to write.
Series: Jon's second childhood [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746820
Comments: 37
Kudos: 298





	Things happen when Jon's not around

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't necessary for following along the main story, but it might be fun to read. This first one will just be a little exploration into Michael's character and how Elias roped him into a certain new job (takes place sometime during chapter 14, but has spoilers for chapter 17). I recommend that you read the [main story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23647201/chapters/56757151) first if you want to be able to follow what's happening, at least until chapter 11.

When Michael went up to the canteen for a mid-morning snack, all he was expecting was to get away with half an hour away from the dusty corners of the archives and his growing allergies. He was hoping to catch a glimpse of Jon, because he still felt bad about how their last conversation had gone, and he wanted to clear the air between them.

_You knew better than to push with a kid as clearly traumatized as him,_ Michael would think to himself many times in the days after that argument, _you should have given him more space_.

Michael would be the first to admit he came on a little strong towards children. Not for any weird reasons; he just really liked them. He would have loved to be a father, but given his romantic proclivities—or absolute lack of interest in them, rather—that was unlikely to ever be true. He had looked into adoption, years ago, before his work at the Archives became overwhelming after Eric left. Turns out, it was very difficult for an unmarried man to adopt a new child, and given his new workload, Michael had figured he wouldn’t be able to put in the work he would have needed to, and it wouldn’t have been fair to bring a child into the situation, even if he was able to beat the odds.

So he had given up on the idea, and turned his energies into caring for Gertrude, his boss, and such a gentle older woman who so easily lost track of time and needed someone to watch out for her. She who sat him down and explained so much, how there _were_ supernatural things, such as that which had taken Ryan, years and years ago, but they were extremely rare, and the Institute gathered all the stories to keep an eye out for the real ones, though they hardly ever happened.

It had finally given him enough peace of mind to relax, though he would wake sometimes from dreams of losing his best friend, and he would return to everything Gertrude told him to calm down and move on with his life.

He had been mostly happy, he thought, after more than a decade of working in the Archives, of sharing jokes and nights out with Emma, of doing what he could to take care of Gertrude, whenever she allowed him to. It was important work, even if most of the files turned out to be nothing. Even if Gertrude had the most complicated filing system he had ever come into contact with.

And then Jon showed up at the institute one day. Michael had seen him wandering around for days before their literal run-in, which may or may not have been a little planned on Michael’s part. He had agonized for days on how he could introduce himself without spooking the kid, who wouldn’t react well to a large strange man coming over for no reason. It wasn’t like Michael wanted to hurt the kid, quite the contrary! He saw him, small, quiet, and so blatantly lonely, and Michael just really, really wanted to help.

Especially after he talked with Rosie, and she told him, in a quiet voice, that Jon had been sent to live with Elias after being rescued from an abusive household. Michael could understand why Elias didn’t want to send Jon into school so soon after having his entire life upended, though he disagreed with the idea. Having friends his own age would probably do the kid a lot of good.

Lacking that, Michael decided, _he_ could provide the kid some support. He couldn’t think of doing otherwise. So he went and bought books on childhood trauma and healing, and even found a child psychologist who was willing to take his calls to pester for how best to approach and help a child his age.

Being himself, though, he took it too far, and had gotten Jon to snap back when his boundaries were breached. He had only wanted to help, but he understood it had been his mistake. He only wished he could find Jon on his own again, to apologize and try to make it better, to explain that he wouldn’t push anymore unless Jon gave him permission to.

As had been the case since their argument, there was no Jon at the canteen when he arrived. As was entirely abnormal, Elias Bouchard walked over to him as he stepped away with warm scone in hand.

“Michael?” Elias offered him a hand, and Michael fumbled with his scone so he could shake his hand.

“Uh, um, yes?” He stammered. He had only spoken with Elias once, back when he took over the Institute and went around introducing himself department by department. He felt guilty in that he knew he should have gone to ask for Elias’ permission before approaching Jon, as he was the boy’s guardian, but it had felt too awkward to go into his boss’ office and ask if he could befriend his eight-year-old child.

“Do you have a few minutes to talk? It’s…. personal.” Elias said, taking out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the crumbs from his fingers.

Worried and embarrassed, Michael agreed. A few minutes later they were both standing in one of the empty offices in the third floor, and not, as Michael had assumed, in Elias’ office. Which made sense if he thought about it, since _Jon_ would be in that office, and presumably Elias wanted to talk about him.

Once the door was shut behind them, Michael tried his best not to fidget. He was not a schoolboy caught breaking the rules. He was a man, probably a decade older than Elias, who had done nothing wrong.

Except to try to befriend an underage child without his guardian’s permission. A guardian who happened to be his boss.

_He wouldn’t fire me over this, would he?_ He was suddenly twice as nervous.

“I apologize if what I ask now will be insensitive, but I’m afraid there’s a bit of a time constraint on all of this and I’ll have to be blunt,” Elias said. “Were you close with Eric Delano?”

The name threw Michael off. Whatever he had expected, having the name of a friend he hadn’t heard from in over a decade casually thrown out wasn’t it.

“We were friends,” Michael said, after a long pause. “For some time, though we grew apart after his marriage, and I never heard from him after he stopped working here.”

“Ah,” Elias said. He crossed his arms, posture straight-backed, blue eyes searching Michael’s for something he wasn’t sure he had. “And were you aware that he had a son?”

Michael blinked. He opened his mouth, then closed it. He tried to imagine Eric, as he had last seen him, as a father. It wasn’t that hard to imagine; he had been a good man, if a bit paranoid, and neither Emma nor Michael had ever understood his attraction to Mary. Michael remembered more than once, in his early days working at the Archives, when Eric had covered for him when his work hadn’t been up to Gertrude’s standards, just as Michael had tried to do when Eric started coming down with increasingly worse migraines, and started insisting he was being followed.

“With Mary?” Michael asked, his mind finally catching on to something in his confusion. As easy as it was to imagine Eric as a father, it was difficult to imagine Mary having anything to do with a baby. He had tried to like her, back when Eric started to date her. She hadn’t made it easy, making it clear with her every word and gesture that she barely tolerated _Eric,_ let alone any friends of his that wanted to hang around. She was the main reason why he hadn’t been surprised that Eric had never contacted anyone at the Archives again after leaving.

Elias gave a nod. He paused, like he was hesitating sharing the next part, and Michael knew that whatever was coming wouldn’t be good.

“Eric Delano has been missing for more than twelve years,” Elias said. Despite the distance between them, Michael felt gutting pain. His friend had been missing? And he hadn’t even known? “Just around the time his son was born.”

“I don’t…” Michael shook his head, lost. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I needed to see if you were someone who would care about the wellbeing of Gerard Keay, Eric’s son.” Elias said. Michael flinched back, stung.

“Of course I would care!” He cried. “Even if he hadn’t been my friend, which he was.” He didn’t stop his fidgeting now, worried. “Should I be worried?”

Elias looked around, like he was once again making sure the office was empty. He leaned forward, his voice low and urgent. “I have… friends, in the department of welfare for children. The same ones who reached out to me to house my Jon in a hurry. They reached out to me because they were searching for any family of Eric’s, and they knew I worked here.” Elias gave a frustrated shrug. “Eric Delano was way before my time, though.”

“Why were they asking?” Michael asked, nervous.

“There are concerns,” Elias whispered. “Nothing solid yet, but when you start to look into Gerard’s life, patterns emerge. Hospital visits all around the country, no schooling records, even to confirm that his mother is house-schooling hm, some worrying flags in Mary Keay’s own police file…”

Michael covered his mouth, feeling sick, and closed his eyes. It was too easy to imagine, that Mary would not care well for her own son. That she would actively hurt him, though? Michael didn’t want to imagine it.

“If… if they are reaching out now, does that mean they will act soon?” Michael asked.

“That’s complicated,” Elias said, shaking his head. “Without a good alternative for where to place Gerard, a family member to take him in, it might put the boy in more danger to take him, if his mother was left free to go after him.”

“But he’s suffering,” Michael said, pain making his voice strain. “Couldn’t they place him somewhere far?”

“They are working on putting Mary away,” Elias confided. “But they wanted to have a plan in place of what to do with Gerard, if they had to move in a hurry. As far as they can tell, he has no family other than his mother, though.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Michael whispered. His heart hurt with the need to act, to try to help. But he could do nothing but listen, and hurt, and feel powerless.

“Because I could tell them that I _did_ find family,” Elias said, eyes shining. “I could tell them that I have a worker here who is a distant cousin to Eric, and willing to take in this child. If you’re willing.”

“But…” Michael started to argue, then his mouth caught up to his brain, and he swallowed. Elias was suggesting fraud. It could get them _both_ sent to jail, if it were discovered. “Why would you risk this?” He had to ask.

Elias’ face changed, became a little wry, a little humorous. “Jon,” he said, and shrugged, like that explained anything. In a way, it did. You couldn’t be around a kid who had been hurt without feeling a depth of sympathy for any other children that might be hurt.

Michael closed his eyes. He thought of danger, of risking jail and worse, of endangering his safe, comfortable life. He thought of Eric, smiling, and Eric, face gaunt, eyes desperate. He imagined what his son might look like—with his bright, intelligent eyes, maybe? Or his wispy blonde hair? Would he have his same dry, borderline offensive humor? Would he have a sense of humor at all, after a childhood spent with Mary?

“I’ll do it,” Michael said. He met Elias’ eyes. “Tell me what to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I really love this version of Michael, and Gerry is going to need a lot of help, so I'm really happy how this turned out :D (even though nothing really happened...)
> 
> The latest episode really messed with my interpretation of the old archival staff. *grumbles* oh well, I suppose I’ve been deviating from canon for a while now. I feel like everyone is going to hate Emma now, though I was going for a likeable character… then again, I didn’t really have much of a plan for her, so maybe I can move some things around and she’ll be the evil little creep we saw. It’s not like Michael or Jon would have noticed anything off about her… (But I don’t think I’ll put in the fainting assistant. That really wouldn’t fit.)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
